Search engines may be confusing users, says FTC
14 October 2003
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has voiced concerns that web users may not be able to tell when search results are advertiser-sponsored due to unclear disclosure on the part of search companies.
The FTC last year notified Internet operators including Yahoo-owned AltaVista and America Online, that they must clearly mark advertisements that appear within their search results, in an attempt to clarify web use for browsers.
Though the regulatory agency is so far pleased with efforts to disclose ads as 'sponsored' when they appear on top or adjacent to query results, worries have arisen that new forms of paying for online exposure is having a negative effect on web use.
This process of paid inclusion is less well known than paid placement among search engine users, but is no less popular among marketers.
'We want the search engines to be cognizant that these are issues we hope they approach and make disclosure as visible as possible, so that consumers understand what they're pulling up and that there's some advertising linked to it,' said Heather Hipsley, of the FTC's advertising practices division.
'There's more work to be done because it's an ever-evolving issue,' she told cnet.
Yahoo spokeswoman Diana Lee asserted that as long as the search results are relevant, the company is doing its job: 'Results are based on relevancy, irregardless of whether a site participates in a paid inclusion,' she said.
Apply for your free web assessment - get a complete health check and optimisation action plan from Weboptimiser, the experts.
Related news
|
|
Leading brand search engine marketing since 1996
Founded in 1996 as an SEO company, Weboptimiser is today one of the Internet marketing sector's best-known and most respected search engine optimisation (SEO) and pay per click (PPC) search engine marketing companies.
With a unique portfolio of brand-friendly services, including usability, contextual advertising and web analytics, a pioneering methodology that covers all 4 stages of interaction between a web site and its visitors, we make our clients sites faster, smarter, busier and more profitable.
